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Retail needs to entertain and keynect with their customers to survive

Retailers that survive will be more about experiences and less about selling a product.

When it comes to shopping, more people are doing this by smartphones or tablets .... It's so much easier .

People wiil want to visit the retailer - for entertainment and to be keynected !

Think: Apple stores.

"Physical shopping will become a lot more fun because it's going to have to be," retail futurist Doug Stephens says.

How's this for retail innovation!

Hointers

A woman demonstrates Hointer's shopping technology. Hointer, a Seattle store displays clothing not in piles or on racks but as one piece hanging at a time, like a gallery. Shoppers just touch their smartphones to a coded tag on the item and then select a color and size via their phone. Technology in the store keeps track of the items, and by the time a shopper is ready to try them on, they're already at the dressing room.

If the shopper doesn't like an item, he tosses it down a chute, which automatically removes the item from the shopper's online shopping cart. The shopper keeps the items that he or she wants, which are purchased automatically when leaving the store, no checkout involved.

Nadia Shouraboura, Hointer's CEO, says once shoppers get used to the process, they're hooked.

On-demand coupons, beacons Aura and Keynected

Australian company Aura and Keynected are leading the field ....they can communicate directly with your cellphone using beacons to offer discounts and rewards directing you to a desired product or store.

For example, you can walk into a westfield. Aura would recognize your smartphone, connect it with brands that you like from your Keynected app and send you a text or email with a coupon a product or service that you love!

If the brand knows what you are interested in - they could offer you a reward for being an advocate.

The key is to get that data - keynected!

Keynected is on beta right now (you can download from the App Store -

It plans to launch in June 2014!

3-D Printing

Make your product from home - economically viable ?

Fantasy or reality?

My view? There are better uses for 3d printing than manufacturing consumer goods

Holograms

EBay recently bought PhiSix, a company working on creating life-size 3-D models of clothing that can be used in dressing rooms to instantly try on different colors of clothing or different styles.

You can see 30 or 40 items of clothing realistically without physically trying them on - showing what the clothes look like when you are, say, walking down the street or hitting a golf club.

British digital agency Engage created a Virtual Style Pod that scanned shoppers and created a life-size image onto which luxury clothing from brands like Alexander McQueen and DKNY were projected.

The Pod was displayed in shopping centers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates.